Psychological Safety and the Power of Disclosure

Author: Brian Tang

High level summary:

Psychological safety and a culture of vulnerability and disclosure build trust in teams, which contribute to the team's overall high performance. Managers and team leaders could deploy simple tactics to cultivate a culture of disclosure, starting by themselves.

What is Google known for? You may think that Google is really good at search engine, email service, and its various online tools. When it comes to management and teamwork, few people would associate it with Google. Yet, Google conducted a two-years research about teamwork in 2012. They strove to find out what exactly makes high-performing teams high-performing. So they did what they are known for – research and data. Google formed a project called “Aristotle” and surveyed close to 200 teams and conducted hundreds of interviews. The result of the project is a list of 5 factors that makes teams high-performing. The number one factor? It’s called “Psychological Safety”.

What is Psychological Safety?

Psychological Safety refers to the psychological comfort for any member in the team to act or speak without fear of being negatively labelled or consequences on their self-image or status. When the level of psychological safety is high in the team, team members feel safe to take risks, feel respected and accepted.

When it comes to team performance, one may think that what makes a team tick are strong leadership, clear goals, motivating vision, solid technical skills, etc. Google’s research showed us something completely different – it’s almost counter-intuitive. Why is psychological safety so important in teamwork? To answer this question, we need to study two things: the nature of work and the composition of workforce today.

Change of Work Nature

Management guru Peter Drucker has said that we are now living in the “knowledge industry” – where most of the employees are “knowledge workers”. Knowledge workers make a living by using their knowledge, skills or technical expertise to solve problems at work. Almost all white-collar workers are knowledge workers – accountants, IT technicians, managers, chefs, not to mention the professionals such as doctors and lawyers. The most valuable asset of knowledge workers is their brain – their knowledge and technical skills. The more unique and indispensable the knowledge, the higher value the worker. They usually have higher education and they earn a decent amount of wages.

On the other hand, the opposite of knowledge workers is unskilled laborers. Their works carry low skill level and economic value. Unskilled laborers, such as cashiers, restaurant stewards, usually have low education levels and earn much less than knowledge workers.

If we look at the world economy today, it is mainly characterized by “knowledge industry”. Industries such as finance, IT, medical and education are good examples of knowledge industries. Even industries traditionally seen as “low skill”, such as food & beverage and logistics and transportation, are using technology such as big data and smart phone APPs in their operations, thus requiring a large amount of knowledge workers. Those who fall behind in the trend will find themselves being marginalized by the market and competitors. Furthermore, the emergence of AI stretches this frontier still farther, requiring even knowledge workers to upskill their skillsets. For instance, what makes doctors valuable today is not their medical knowledge or ability of prescription. One can easily Google all the symptoms and prescription of a disease – free of charge. Doctors today need to be able to empathize with patients, uncover the narrative of the patient’s life through empathetic conversation. Only then will doctors be able to connect with the patients, uncover factors that may contribute to the disease, and prescribe a total solution that not only treats the disease but contributes to the patient’s total wellness. If doctors want to beat Google and AI, they need to master empathy and communication skill.

New Generations of Workforce

A decade ago managers from the baby-boomers and Generation X had a hard time managing Generation Y. As Gen Y matures and become managers themselves, they face the problem their predecessors had – managing the new generation, Gen Z. Whether you like it or not, Gen Z is entering the workforce and will become the major driver of the workforce in the next decade or two. They are tech savvy and highly connected. What do they want at work? Researches showed that Gen Z values personalized and regular feedback, growth and development opportunities, doing interesting and meaningful work, and a certain level of autonomy. Put another way, they have high self-efficacy and they want to see how they fit into the big picture at work. They know they are just a screwdriver, but they want to know how this screwdriver makes the car move.

“Teamwork” redefined

What does the knowledge economy and change of workforce have to do with psychological safety? When we have a workforce, which is highly educated and values their own identities and input, doing works that is highly skilled and requires interpersonal connections, we need a new culture of work. In the traditional approach of management, the role of a manager is to, literally, “manage” the people underneath him/her. Under the Command and Control approach, teamwork is defined as the manager giving an instruction, and everybody else listens and works accordingly.

However, in this fast-changing environment, it is impossible for managers to “know it all”. Rarely can the manager figure out the “solution” of a challenge by himself/herself. What the manager sees is perhaps the tip of the iceberg. What lies underneath the water is a “wicked problem” characterized by an interwoven of internal and/or external factors. How do we solve wicked problems? Companies and managers must tap into the collective wisdom of team members. When the knowledge workers value their own sense of worth, managers exercising the Command and Control approach will soon find their team members disengaged, unproductive, and demotivated. Workers, especially Gen Y and Z, will find their work boring if the managers do not articulate the meaning or a bigger sense of worth of their work. Team members who are eagerly to voice their concerns at first but found themselves immediately shut down by the dominant leader will soon give up raising their hands in the meeting. In the knowledge economy, highly skilled works require the collective power from the team. Managers need to explain the significance of the work – the “Why” to the team, invite inputs from team members, and allow autonomy for them to do their work. Managers should continue to monitor the progress of the works from the team members, and offer personalized and timely feedback. Teamwork, in the knowledge economy with new workforce, is redefined as a collaborative approach. The role of a manager moves away from “commander” to “facilitator”, who, accordingly to the definition of dictionary, is “someone who helps to bring about an outcome by providing indirect or unobtrusive assistance, guidance, or supervision”. Facilitators may not know the answer to the problem, but they are best at guiding the team to navigate through the maze, leveraging on team members’ motivation and abilities, and co-creating a solution that team members have high ownership in. Managers as facilitators create space of autonomy – it’s the result that the manager cares, not the way the team member takes to achieve the result (as long as the team adheres to company’s policies and work ethics) If the manager as commander pulls the team from the front, the manager as facilitator guides on the side. Commanders manage; facilitators support.

It’s not hard to imagine why psychological safety is needed in a collaborative working environment. To solve wicked problems, team members need to constantly discuss, debate, and exchange thoughts and ideas. Person A’s comments may inspire person B’s idea. Person C may further ride on person B’s idea to come up with something better. Solving wicked problems is never a straight line. It is an irregular shape with feedback loops. Constructive criticism (disagreeing a viewpoint with the intention to moving the argument forward) and assertive inquiry (genuine inquiry to one’s viewpoint with an assertive stance) are two powerful weapons that can blast through the walls of wicked problems. These advanced communication techniques not only require skills to execute, it also calls for psychological safety. If the level of psychological safety is low, team members will have fear of voicing their concerns and ideas. No one wants to be seen as incompetent or even stupid by their peers and managers. Therefore, the best way to avoid embarrassing yourself is not to make any comments. “No comments”, “Yes, I agree” are often heard in teams with low level of psychological safety. The end result will be poor decision quality, low productivity, and a group of disengaged workers. Conformity and groupthink emerge, which may lead to catastrophe result (such as the space shuttle Challenger’s explosion in 1986). Without psychological safety, teams and corporations will not thrive in the knowledge industry with the new workforce.

Teams with a high level of psychological safety, on the other hand, are not afraid to speak up. They are willing to make comments, suggestions or ideas in the team with the intention to move things forward. Those teams often have formed a culture of vulnerability. “It’s okay to make mistakes.”, “No one knows the answer, let’s try and find out.” are often heard. Therefore, team members are willing to engage in constructive conversations. They debate not to win over each other, but to move closer to the solution. Again, this is nothing but communication skills, but in order for the communication to take place, a culture in which team members are willing to share and discuss needs to be in place. The manager, or “manager as facilitator” as advocated in the knowledge economy, plays a vital role in shaping the culture of vulnerability.

Creating a culture of vulnerability

Now we know why psychological safety is important in the new economy with a new generation of workforce, how do we create it? One effective way is to create a culture of vulnerability, i.e., a culture where mistakes are accepted as long as we learn from it, and nobody including the managers are invincible. If managers can role-model the behavior of admitting mistakes, team members will feel safe to take risks. “It’s okay to try”, “You never know if it works unless you try (or test)” are often said by managers whose teams are high in psychological safety. The opposite of vulnerability is not invincibility but arrogance. One who blindly thinks he/she or his/her teams would never fail will soon find themselves swamped by brutal reality. Vulnerability breeds humility, and humility makes leaders more authentic and approachable. It’s almost counter-intuitive, but vulnerability and humility increase one’s leadership presence, not diminish it.

To create psychological safety and a culture of vulnerability, managers can start with self-disclosure. Here are a few things managers can easily implement at work:

1. “Insight of the week” sharing

Managers could initiate a weekly sharing of everyone’s biggest insight they learn in the past week. During the team’s weekly meeting, everyone takes turn to share their biggest insight, learning, or lesson that happened in the past week. For example, Susan tells us her discovery of an Excel formula that helped her tremendously speeded up the project she was working on. Peter tells us his experience as a novice father and how he and his wife got through the sleepless nights. The sharing could be something that happened at work, in family, or even church service. The context and background of the lesson is not important. The purpose of the sharing is to develop the habit of disclosure.

2. “Mistake of the month” sharing

Many departments and teams have monthly gathering or meeting. Managers and team leaders could initiate a “Mistake of the month” sharing during such meetings. Everyone takes turn to share their biggest “mistake” at work that occurred in the past month. The purpose of such meeting is to encourage vulnerability and disclosure. By putting such sharing in place, not only can the team develop the culture of vulnerability hence contributing to the team’s psychological safety, team members will also learn from everyone’s mistakes and lessons.

3. Initiate small talks with team members

In addition to the previous team-based tactics, managers could influence psychological safety on individual basis. Managers could once in a while initiate small talks with individual members. Don’t talk about work; instead, talk about family, hobby, and health. We all have a life outside of work, and talking about our personal lives such as family, hobby and health can engage one another. People love talking about themselves – it’s plain human nature. Implementing this tactic with care will build up your team’s comfort in disclosing themselves.

Note that when you implement the above strategies, you must start with yourself. Role-modeling behaviors you want your team to demonstrate is the number one thing any leader should do. Before you ask your team to talk, you must first talk. Only when the manager is willing to admit mistakes will team members start to loosen up and reveal theirs. In addition, your team may feel awkward or uncomfortable to talk about lessons or mistakes at first. If that happens, don’t force them. Self-disclosure must be authentic in order to be effective. Forcing people to talk may backlash. A certain amount of encouragement is needed, but forcing people to disclose is unnecessary.

To sum up, we have stepped into a knowledge economy working with a new generation whose needs differ from previous generations. To tackle the ever-challenging wicked problems today, we need to leverage on the collective wisdom of the team. In order to do that, team members must feel safe to disclose and discuss within the team. Psychological safety and a culture of vulnerability are the building blocks of teams with high performance and high trust. Managers can promote psychological safety by implementing several self-disclosure tactics.

The article was first published in Macau Manager magazine, volume 79.